David Byrne: If the 1% stifles New York's creative talent, I'm out of here

Re:David Byrne: If the 1% stifles New York's creative talent... by rayiner on Monday October 07, 2013 @02:39PM (#6510282)

The apartments right by the train stations are artificially expensive. They're designed to take advantage of the fact that white commuters don't want to risk living in a building with low income minorities. The surrounding housing is half the price, and the area is quite safe.

Nearly all of the Westchester suburbs are extremely walkable. All of the essential stuff is on the train line. The wife and I would load up the baby and take the train to Portchester, where there was a Costco, Marshalls, etc. I did have a car, which I drove maybe once a month (the upscale mall in White Plains was nowhere near public transit).

A 35 minute commute is not bad at all. Lots of rich people all over the country have hour+ commutes from the suburbs. Heck, my commute from New Rochelle was a lot more enjoyable (straight shot into GCT) than my commute from the UWS (transfer at Times Square, ugh). You can't point to 35 minute commutes as a reason to make space for low-income housing in the city proper.

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Re:David Byrne: If the 1% stifles New York's creative talent... by busterarm on Monday October 07, 2013 @02:44PM (#6510308)

I haven't been back there recently enough to know if MN is 24 hours but I recall travel being limited to certain times and this is especially true on the LIRR. Especially late at night, the train is filled with annoying rowdy drunks. That's more than enough reason for me not to want to live out there. It's like being deprived of all of the social benefits of living in/around NYC.

I mean, I totally get what you're saying, but I didn't find much benefit to living out there. I don't have a family though.

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Re:David Byrne: If the 1% stifles New York's creative talent... by rayiner on Monday October 07, 2013 @02:59PM (#6510399)

Metro North is not 24 hours, but it's only closed for 3 hours between 2:30 am and 5:30 am. And trains from NR run every 15 minutes at rush hour. The Metro North has way fewer sketchy people on average than the Subway. Lots of bankers heading back to Greenwich.

In any case, you're arguing a different point now. Housing prices in many Westchester towns are very reasonable and commutes are too. No reason for rent control to allow low-income people to live in the city proper.

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Re:David Byrne: If the 1% stifles New York's creative talent... by busterarm on Monday October 07, 2013 @03:16PM (#6510503)

It definitely seems like the MN-lines have the nicer folks. late night LIRR rides are 10x worse than any subway line.

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